Good point – according to the MeSH record at least, insomnia is a disease. (Sometimes I get confused about whether a condition is a disease or a symptom.) When I get some time (which will be a *while* from now), I hope to find some additional studies showing the connection between insomnia and other diseases.

Michael Jackson was very ill for much of his life, and it seems clear that like most people with chronic disease, he had multiple conditions.

Regards,
Paul

Thanks for posting the link to the large version of the wheel. I love this thing!

Would really like to see to how chronic insomnia fits into it.

I wonder how many insomniacs or doctors are aware of the connection between insomnia and a sick immune system or as a comorbidity to an “autoimmune” disease. I know folks are becoming more aware of its link in FM and CFS, but not so much with the other chronic inflammatory diseases. Do you agree?

After what happened to Michael Jackson and reading about his history of lupus and vitiligo, it really disturbed me that his autoimmune diseases were barely mentioned in the media and, of course, no one was mentioning a possible connection of the diseases with his insomnia. But then, they just don’t have a clue… he probably didn’t either.

Thanks for your comment. It’s hard to understand what patients have to go through until you’ve gone through it yourself, and then it becomes plainly evident, doesn’t it?

My esteemed co-presenter for the session, Maria C. Dolce, PhD, talked about how patients used the Internet and some of their attitudes. She reported that one cancer patient was told by her doctor at a top medical center, “Stay away from the Internet. It’s not good for you.”

Best,
Paul

I wish this type of presentation could be given to medical students so that they can understand a patient’s point of reference in trying to help themselves by searching the internet.

My experience with MDs for the most part, prior to meeting my MP doctor……..has been a kind of “rolling of their eyes” and the attitude that the internet is not credible. As you say there are good things and bad things about the internet and there is certainly alot of selling of products.

The challenge is going to the right sources and learning how to interpret studies.

I thought your presentation was full of insight and wisdom and extremely well done.

Thank you very much.

elizabeth allan

I think the wheel makes an interesting point. If I may criticize my own work, my one quibble with it is that it is not comprehensive. Basically, I spent one long afternoon searching for studies on comorbidities. I’m sure there are other relationships that this visualization does not adequately represent. Note that in creating this wheel, I did exclude case reports and case series.

Best,
Paul